Alabama News

If you’re in the market for a new ride, there’s a unique item available for purchase in Alabama this week.

GSA Auctions, which offers government-owned surplus property, is listing a Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk Medium Lift Utility Helicopter.

The current bid for the helicopter, as of Monday morning, is $250,001. It is located at Guntersville’s Ace Aeronautics.

GSA Auctions regularly offers castoff items such as vehicles, meals ready to eat, small equipment, machinery and aircraft.

The Black Hawk, named for a Native American leader of the 19th century, is a twin-engine, four-blade helicopter that has been used by the U.S. military since the late seventies.

You can find out more about the actual aircraft here.

If you’re interested, you’ll need at least a $100,000 bid deposit, and a plan for taking possession of your property.

“Successful bidders are cautioned that they will be responsible for loading, packing and removal of all property awarded to them from the exact place where the property is located,” a warning posted on the webpage notes.

As a group of youngsters ran from a drill where they had been working on ball-carrier pursuit, one said excitedly to his buddy: “We’re about to meet Jalen. We’re about to meet the one and only.”

The youngsters were running across the turf at Bayside Academy’s Freedom Field to the spot where they would have their picture taken with former Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Milroe said of the youngster’s admiration, “because I always live by this: You should seek to be a blessing to other people, and any impact that you have on other people, when you make that impact, it makes them smile, and that’s something that’s very powerful for me, so that’s why I do what I do. That’s why I host camps, that’s why I play football, just to touch people.”

On Sunday afternoon, Milroe and a football field full of youngsters were in Daphne for the Jalen Milroe Flexwork Youth Football Camp.

The camp completed a weekend tour of Alabama for Milroe. He held a camp at Westminster Christian Academy in Huntsville on Friday and another at Hoover High School on Saturday.

“One thing I learned at Alabama was to trust the process, the team camaraderie, an understanding that it takes a team to accomplish all the tasks that we want to accomplish,” Milroe said. “And also about being selfless. That’s a great way to look at life – being selfless and leaning on the people that want the best for you.

“And that’s what I want for these kids. I want the best for them, so they can accomplish all they want to accomplish. That’s important to me.”

After passing for 16 touchdowns and running for 20 more in his second season as Alabama’s No. 1 quarterback in 2024, Milroe joined the Seattle Seahawks in the third round of the NFL Draft on April 25.

Milroe and the rest of the Seattle rookies are scheduled to report for training camp on Tuesday.

“It’s more important for me to be in front of these kids than relaxing,” Milroe said of his weekend trip through Alabama. “I’m going to be out there working hard, but right now I’m focusing my attention on the kids.”

Milroe’s first NFL training camp is set for the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton, Washington.

“It’s going to be a grind, for sure,” Milroe said. “It’s going to be a long process, but just take it day-by-day. I’m going to enjoy every bit of it, especially since it’s my first one, so I’m going to have a lot of fun.”

The Seahawks have three quarterbacks on their training-camp roster. All are new to the team this season, although Drew Lock was with Seattle in 2023 before playing for the New York Giants in 2024. The Seahawks signed Sam Darnold in March as a free agent after he led the Minnesota Vikings to a 15-2 regular-season record in 2024.

With just three quarterbacks and Darnold already secure as the starter, Milroe appears in line for plenty of preseason action. The Seahawks start their three-game preseason schedule on Aug. 7 against the Las Vegas Raiders. Seattle plays the Kansas City Chiefs on Aug. 15 and the Green Bay Packers on Aug. 23 before the Seahawks’ regular season kicks off on Sept. 7 against the San Francisco 49ers.

“I love competing,” Milroe said, “so any opportunity I have to compete, to go against another opponent, I’m going to take advantage of it.”

FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.

The probability of a tropical depression forming in the Gulf this week has increased a bit as of Monday.

The odds overall were still on the low side, however.

The system could end up bringing a lot of rain to the Gulf Coast, including Alabama, according to forecasters.

The National Hurricane Center said there is a 30 percent probability of a tropical depression forming in the next week in the Gulf, an increase from 20 percent the past few days.

The system being watched as of Monday was a trough of low pressure located near the east coast of Florida in the western Atlantic Ocean.

The hurricane center expects the system to track to the west and cross over Florida and into the Gulf by late Tuesday.

Conditions in the Gulf, with all its warm water, are expected to be favorable for the system to develop this week. It is forecast to continue heading to the west or west-northwest during that time.

A system has to have a defined surface circulation and sustained winds of at least 40 mph to be classified as a tropical storm and get a name. The next name on the 2025 Atlantic storm list is Dexter.

Name or no name, the system could bring a lot of rain to Florida and parts of the northern Gulf Coast, including Alabama.

Here is the seven-day precipitation outlook from NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center:

The National Weather Service in Mobile continued to keep a close eye on developments as well on Monday.

Forecasters said overall confidence in the system’s track and intensity remain on the low side, “but this is something to closely monitor over the next few days as it could result in hazardous high-impact weather in our area if development and intensification occurs and it tracks close enough to our area.”

The weather service does expect the risk for rip currents to increase to moderate on Wednesday and high (the highest level) on Thursday, which means swimming in the Gulf will be very hazardous.

Winds could also increase near the end of the week as the system moves closer.

President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” will establish a savings account for millions of babies born in the U.S. The so-called “Trump accounts” will “afford a generation of children the chance to experience the miracle of compounded growth and set them on a course for prosperity from the very beginning,” the White House said in a statement.

Here’s how the Trump accounts will work, who is eligible and how much beneficiaries will receive:

What’s a “Trump account?”

Trump accounts will start with a $1,000 contribution from the U.S. government. The money is designed to grow over time with investment in low-cost stocks based on market indexes.

Who is eligible?

Children born from the beginning of 2025 through the end of 2028 are eligible, according to the bill. Kids born before this year are eligible for an IRA-style account but won’t receive the $1,000 seed money, Yahoo Finance reported. Recipients must also be a U.S. citizen with a Social Security number.

Can parents make contributions too?

Yes. Parents or others can make contributions up to $5,000 a year to the Trump account until the child turns 18. Companies can also contribute up to $2,500 a year into the account of an employee’s eligible child without adding to the worker’s taxable income.

Are there income limits to be eligible?

There are no income limits for families to receive the $1,000.

When will the money be available?

The money is expected to be available in July 2026.

When can the child access the money?

Children will be able to access the money when they turn 18. After age 18, the yearly contribution limit is expected to increase to $7,000 in keeping with traditional IRA rules. There is a 10% penalty for withdrawing money from an IRA before age 59-and-a-half but there are exceptions for home purchases or higher education expenses.

How much could accounts be worth?

An analysis by NPR showed a $1,000 investment with an 8% return rate would be worth $4,000 by the time the child turned 18. Families who contributed the additional $5,000 at the same 8% rate could see $190,000 at age 18.

Who will set up the accounts?

Key details are still being determined but the bill allows for parents to set up the accounts at the bank of their choice. The Treasury Department will set up accounts for children whose parents don’t elect to do so.

How much will this cost the U.S.?

About 3.6 million babies are born in the U.S. each year, the New York Times reported, putting the tab for the Trump accounts at several billion for year.

More than 100,000 Medicare recipients will be receiving new cards and numbers after what the agency is describing as a “data incident.”

In a statement, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it had identified “suspicious activity” related to unauthorized creation of Medicare.gov ,accounts that used personal information “obtained from unknown external sources.” The investigation showed cyber criminals had fraudulently created new accounts between 2023 and 2025 using valid beneficiary information, including coverage start dates, last names, dates of birth and ZIP codes.

The information could then be used to obtain mailing addresses, provider information, diagnosis codes, services received, plan premium details and dates of service.

103,000 accounts impacted

Those impacted accounts – some 103,000 of them – were deactivated and beneficiaries whose information may have been compromised are being notified.

“The safeguarding and security of personally identifiable information is of the utmost importance to CMS,” the agency said.

A letter sent to people whose information was compromised informed them that they will receive a new Medicare card and Medicare number. Medicare benefits or coverage weren’t affected, the agency said, and there have been no reports of identity fraud or misuser of the information as a result of the activity.

Out of “an abundance of caution,” CMS said it had deactivated all the fraudulently created Medicare.gov accounts, disabled the ability to create new accounts from a foreign IP address and mailed new Medicare cards as needed.

Beneficiaries are advised to monitor their statements for signs of identity theft and report any suspicious activity to 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227) or to the Office of Inspector General.

The family of a young man killed by police at a soccer park south of Birmingham says an officer shot him in the back.

But police won’t show the video to the public or even to Jabari Peoples’ family.

Across the state — in Decatur, Bay Minette, Huntsville, Madison, and Montgomery — the pattern repeats: Someone dies in police custody, grieving families ask for body camera footage, and authorities often say no with the same refrain: “Due to an ongoing investigation.”

“In order to eliminate some of the confusion, disruption, lawsuits even, and the mistrust and distrust of law enforcement, I think the video camera footage should be shown,” said Robert Clopton, president of the Mobile branch of the NAACP. “If there is nothing to hide, why hide it?”

In Alabama, police now know they don’t have to release the tapes.

Four years ago, the state supreme court ruled that police can keep all of their investigative materials, including bodycams, hidden from the public.

And a state law passed in 2023, allows them to choose whether to keep the footage hidden from families.

While there’s no law or court ruling that says they can’t show the footage, in Alabama, that only tends to happen when the videos are convenient for police, or if a judge orders it released years after the fact.

“There is no mechanism to force law enforcement to produce the footage to family or anyone else,” said J. Evans Bailey, attorney for the Alabama Press Association. “This can and probably has led to situations where law enforcement will only voluntarily release footage when they think it makes them look good or supports their version of events.”

Disputed law

The killing of 18-year-old Peoples at the soccer park in Homewood last month, has sparked protests and prompted attacks lobbed by the family’s legal team and the state lawmaker who sponsored the 2023 bodycam law.

Homewood police said they were investigating a parked car and smelled marijuana. Police said Peoples tried to grab a gun following a struggle with a police officer, who then shot him dead.

Leroy Maxwell, an attorney for the family, has said that a private investigator found that Peoples was unarmed and shot once in the back.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is investigating the shooting. That’s standard practice when an officer injures or kills someone.

And as they have in other cases, state police said they can’t show the footage to the public or to the Peoples family in order to protect their investigation.

Maxwell, the family attorney, noted that the state police cited the 2023 law, sponsored by state Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, when denying their request to see the video. The law says police may choose to show families bodycam footage, but provides no requirement they do so.

Givan called a press conference and said she believes the family should see the footage. But she blamed Maxwell for the denial, saying investigators haven’t shared it because of statements and court filings by the attorney.

“Representative Givan is putting up smoke and mirrors in an attempt to distract from the fact that she is solely responsible for the Peoples’ family not being able to view body cam footage,” Maxwell said in response.

Weak law

Even before the state supreme court ruling and the 2023 bodycam law, Alabamians rarely got to view the footage with police denying requests by citing an exemption to the Alabama Open Records Act protecting records related to investigations.

Gunita Singh, a staff attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, says that Alabama, compared to other states, has “one of the weaker body-worn camera access laws in the country.” Her comment recognizes a 2021 story by The Hill that included Alabama among the 9 states with “the strictest rules on releasing bodycam videos.”

The Alabama State Supreme Court that year ruled, by an 8-1 vote, that bodycam footage is not a public record.

Tom Parker, the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court at the time, was the lone dissent. He wrote that the ruling “shrinks the right of the people of Alabama to the vanishing point.

“After today, as to law-enforcement agencies at least, the statute might as well be titled the Closed Records Act,” Parker wrote.

Two years later, the Alabama Legislature passed Givan’s bill into law, allowing an individual or a personal representative who appears in a body camera or dash camera video to send a written request to the law enforcement agency to view relevant portions of the video. But the law does not obligate law enforcement to allow anyone to view the video, nor does it require the agency to provide a reason for denial.

The issue has played out in cases across Alabama. National civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who joined the Peoples family at a press conference last week, has repeatedly come to the state, demanding the release of footage when Black men have been killed.

Nearly two years ago, Crump made the same call in Mobile after the death of Jawan Dallas following an altercation with two police officers in Theodore. Police responded to complaints of someone trying to break into a mobile home. They found Dallas, 36, in a car blocks away. He was killed after being struck with a Taser following a struggle.

The family got to see the video nearly five months later, only after a grand jury voted not to charge the officers.

After seeing the footage, the family said Mobile police had “murdered” Dallas.

“This is one of the worst videos of a police killing that I have ever witnessed,” said Harry Daniels, an attorney for the Dallas family, last November. “We know he begged for his life. He was saying and screaming, ‘I cannot breathe.’ He said, ‘I do not want to be George Floyd.’”

The public still hasn’t seen the video.

Sometimes law enforcement will release video, most often when the video confirms there was a weapon.

In 2018, following numerous protests, the Alabama Attorney General’s Office released mall surveillance footage after a Hoover police officer shot and killed EJ Bradford inside the Riverchase Galleria. The video was released two and half months after the shooting. It showed Bradford held a gun, even if he pulled it in self defense and was not the mall shooter.

More often police in Alabama do not share video without a court order.

Huntsville fought the release of a video of a shooting despite insisting the officer did nothing wrong and despite spending public money on lawyers for his murder trial. In 2021, over objections from the city, a judge in Huntsville finally ordered the release of bodycams showing Officer Ben Darby shooting a suicidal man. That happened three years after the shooting. Even after a jury watched the videos and found Darby guilty, the city still fought a request to release the tapes to the public.

Crump has gotten videos released in other states. In Memphis, Crump assisted in pressuring police to release video footage of police beating, punching and kicking Tyre Nichols in early 2023.

“What I want to do is leave people to see the video for themselves and they have to determine, if this was them or one of their loved ones, how would they characterize it?” Crump told reporters in Memphis two years ago.

But experts say Alabama stands out, as police can continue denying requests from media or the public for a host of police records, no matter the public controversy.

Blocking release

In Alabama, the top court took a different view than most other states.

For instance, in New Jersey, earlier this year, the State Supreme Court ruled that government officials cannot refuse to disclose the footage to people who are the subject of the recordings. The recordings themselves are considered public records subject to disclosure laws, the court determined.

The Alabama decision came after Lagniappe, a weekly newspaper based in Mobile, sued the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office for videos and other records of a deputy shooting and killing 35-year-old Jonathan Victor in 2017 near the Alabama-Florida state line.

“Before Lagniappe a requestor at least had some leverage to argue the footage was public,” said Bailey. “That’s more or less off the table now.”

Bailey said from a legal perspective, the only hope is for either police to voluntarily release the footage or hope that it’s admitted as evidence in a court proceeding, making it a public record.

“But even then, sometimes the footage still isn’t released to the public until a judge finds the right conditions are met,” Bailey said.

He cited the repeated denials of releasing bodycam footage of the July 2018 death of 51-year-old Joseph Lee Pettaway, a Black man, after a Montgomery police dog went into a house, found Pettaway laying down, bit his thigh and tore his femoral artery.

It took three years for the family to see the video and it’s still not public.

In fighting to keep the video from going public in 2020, the city argued in court that it would cause “annoyance, embarrassment” for officers who were acting in good faith and could end up “facilitating civil unrest.”

In a 2022 decision blocking release of the video, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerusha Adams wrote that, “Due to its graphic nature and emotional impact, the footage from the police body cameras cannot be unseen, ignored, or easily set aside.”

Bailey said the judge repeatedly blocked the release because the footage could influence future jurors in a lawsuit.

He said that leaving the decision of whether to release the videos up to police incentives them to selectively release footage that tends to show them in a positive light.

“That’s just what this legal framework incentivizes, and it seems antithetical to the promise of accountability body cameras were meant to advance.”

In Madison in 2019, police declined to release footage showing police shoot and kill a man outside a gym. Police said they were investigating reports that Dana Fletcher was taking photos at Planet Fitness. The Madison County district attorney, in announcing that the officers would not be charged, showed still photos to reporters, photos that showed Fletcher holding a gun. The videos have never been made public.

Susan Hamill, a longtime professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, said there is very little chance that the Alabama Legislature or the state courts will change the law in favor of more transparency.

She said the best path for improving public access might be to challenge Alabama law in federal court, questioning the constitutionality of withholding bodycam footage

“If the law is not clarified this dilemma will continue,” Hamill said.

Legislative efforts

The Legislature could revise state law, but efforts in recent years have gone nowhere.

Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, attempted to have state law recognize the footage as a public record in 2024, requiring its release within 30 days of a request to view it. Her legislation was defeated in the Alabama Senate Judiciary Committee, opposed by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Givan got bipartisan support for her 2023 bill that lets police choose whether to share footage with family members. The law allows the disclosure of body camera footage to the “personal representative” of “an individual whose image or voice is the subject of the recording.”

Police can withhold it without stating a reason. However, most of the time they say the withholding is due to the sensitive nature of an “ongoing investigation.”

Hamill described the law as a classic “‘have it both ways’ approach,” with ultimately it being “almost completely up to the policing agency” on whether the bodycam video is released while also creating a “veneer that real disclosure to the family and ultimately to the public is available.”

“As long as the law exists as it is I believe the debate will continue with the agency having the upper hand under the ‘ongoing investigation’ reason, or what here appears as an excuse for not releasing the bodycam. Such debates do not inspire trust from the public.”

Givan has said that there was no political appetite for more.

State Rep. Allen Treadaway, R-Morris, said while lawmakers are open to see what changes can be made, he believes that they need to be careful about doing anything that would upend police investigations.

“We have to make sure we’re preserving evidence and not jeopardizing investigations,” said Treadaway, a former assistant police chief in Birmingham. “A tragedy has occurred. A life is lost. But I believe everyone wants a thorough investigation. Let it take its course. The investigative bureau needs to make sure they collect evidence and facts before they put something out there.”

Clopton, with the Mobile NAACP, had a simpler take.

“I can understand why you would hold if there was an accident by police, and a lot of things can happen,” he said. “But if there is nothing to hide, show the video.”

Nate Smith has lost 55 pounds, and he isn’t done.

The country music star recently opened up about the weight loss and his health.

“I didn’t like the way I looked,” Smith told People. “I didn’t like the way I felt. I didn’t like how I was out of breath all the time and how I’d get dizzy just tying my shoes.

“I felt like I was slowly killing myself, and I didn’t know what to do about it.”

Even his parents were scared for the 39-year-old star, he said.

“My parents would come to shows and see me drunk and overeating and stuff, and they’d be scared of the way I was living,” Smith said. “They were worried I’d have a heart attack or a stroke.”

Depression, he said, resulted in drinking and excessive eating.

“I knew I was hurting myself, but I couldn’t stop,” he said. “It was like looking at this mountain and wondering, ‘How do I get up there?’ I didn’t even know where to start.”

Well, he started with cutting back on both eating and drinking and went from 280 pounds to 225 in four months. And, he added, he wants to lose 20 more pounds.

“I’m happier and more confident,” he said. “It’s changed the way I perform onstage. I have a lot more energy.

“I think that the physical stuff has really affected my mental health in a positive way. It’s a concept I heard a million times: ‘You gotta love yourself before you love someone else,’ but it’s kinda true. Because I’m not so insecure about myself, it’s helped me be more present. And it’s changed the way I can love people. I feel free.”

Beverly Gumm and her daughter, Star Rutherford, were cooking lunch in the basement of Richmond Road Baptist Church in Kentucky, in the fellowship hall, Sunday afternoon when a man came through the back door and asked for one of Rutherford’s sisters.

They told the man she wasn’t there. He responded: “Well, someone is gonna have to die, then,” and opened fire, Rutherford told the Herald-Leader.

Gumm, 72, ducked and avoided the first shot, but the second hit her in the chest, killing her.

The man then went outside and shot and killed another of Rutherford’s sisters — Christina Combs, 32 — and injured two others: Gumm’s husband and the longtime pastor of the church, Jerry Gumm, and Combs’ husband, Randy Combs.

Rutherford and two of her other sisters, Dasey “Patches” Rutherford and Rachel Barnes, recounted the chaotic scene in an interview Sunday night with the Herald-Leader.

Guy House was the man who opened fire, they said. The sister he was looking for was the mother of his three children.

The church shooting, in the 5800 block of Old Richmond Road, happened soon after police said House shot and injured a Kentucky State Police trooper who tried to pull him over. House shot the trooper outside Blue Grass Airport, fled, carjacked a vehicle, and then drove to the church, police said.

Police eventually shot and killed House at the church.

Police have not identified House. The sisters said they knew him because of their other sister, whom the Herald-Leader is not identifying.

Star Rutherford said she held her mother as she lay dying. Gumm had eight children, she said, and was a “faithful member of the church who loved God.”

Gumm’s “love language” was feeding people — “homeless people, drug addicts, strangers” — said Patches Rutherford.

Barnes added that her mother and sister were doing what they loved, “serving the Lord,” when they died.

Barnes said Combs was a mother of five who planned to graduate from nursing school in December. She had a 6-month-old baby.

“They were both fantastic moms,” Barnes said.

The sisters said they don’t know a possible motive for House opening fire on the church.

Jerry Gumm and Randy Combs were in critical condition but stable Sunday night at the University of Kentucky hospital, Barnes said.

The state trooper shot at Blue Grass Airport was also stable Sunday.

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©2025 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit at kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The Coastal Alabama Farmers and Fishermens Market opens at 9 a.m., and by 9:30, the aisles are packed. It’s easy to see why: This is not your run-of-the-mill farmers’ market.

First, there’s the facility built by the city of Foley. High-roofed and open, it provides shade and allows any breeze to blow through, making it a relatively pleasant place to be on a hot summer morning. There are built-in restrooms and the adjacent lawns allow for a small sprawl of outside vendors. There’s abundant paved parking, shared with nearby volleyball and pickleball courts, and a grassy field for overflow.

An even bigger impression is made by the wares on offer. Local farmers present a glorious array of locally grown produce, from blueberries and watermelons to potatoes, peppers, carrots and greens. These are not the big-but-bland veggies favored in American supermarkets: They’ve got character, which promises flavor.

Others sell beef, eggs, jellies, honey, juices. The smell of fresh-baked rosemary parmesan sourdough loaves from Southern Preserved is enough to drive passersby mad, and they’re not the only purveyors of baked goods on hand. Shrimp on the Go! Seafood, an award-winning Baldwin County vendor, makes sure the market lives up to the “Fishermens” part of its name, with shrimp, snapper, salmon, grouper and other selections. There are a few arts & crafts vendors, too, with an emphasis on handmade work.

Small wonder it’s an award-winning venue. The market recently ranked as first runner-up nationally among farmers’ markets in Newsweek’s Readers’ Choice Awards, and it also has been ranked in the Top 10 in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards.

The vibe is good. Maybe that’s because when you’ve got good products, a good facility and good traffic, it’s hard for the vibe to be bad. But maybe there’s something more to it.

It certainly doesn’t hurt that the CAFFM is managed on behalf of Foley by a third-generation Baldwin County farmer with a sense of mission. That’s Alescia Forland, whose grandparents emigrated from Norway in the early 1900s and founded a 100-acre farm in the Silverhill area. Forland Farms can now boast its fourth and fifth generations, and Alescia Forland has had experience running the Loxley Farm Market since 1995.

She’s not here to sell widgets.

“We try really hard to have unique vendors,” Forland says, explaining that there’s a waiting list for some categories of vendors but never for farmers.

“We want farmers because that’s the whole point of the farmers’ market,” she says. “We’ve been in the business of family farming for a while now, and you know, it’s difficult. Farming is getting more and more difficult each year. And Baldwin County unfortunately, is going from agriculture to more of row cropping houses, which is sad for me, growing up in the area, seeing all the generational farms going by the wayside. So the farmers’ market is a good way to help keep the smaller farms in business and connect them with the community.”

The COVID-19 pandemic was a lesson in how important local resources can become when supply chains falter, she says. But those local resources have to be nurtured.

“My main goal is, I’m always trying to push young people to farm,” Forland says. “And they have to do small farms, so they need a place like the farmer’s market, because they can’t go out and buy land and start farming. It’s impossible. There’s no way they can go purchase 20, 30, 40 acres of land and farm. They will never pay it off [through] farming at the rate our property values in Baldwin County have increased. But they can, on an acre, two acres, a half-acre, do some sustainable farming.”

Serving as an outlet for small farms’ production isn’t the only role a farmers’ market can play, Forland says. It can be a small business incubator. On this Saturday, one of the vendors, Forget-Me-Knot Bakery,, has a sign up saying that it’s “coming soon” to a brick-and-mortar location in Robertsdale. It won’t be the first business that has made that jump, and Forland says she has seen other producers, such as Tony’s Tejas Salsa, grow to the point they can place their products in supermarkets.

“It’s been a good stepping stone,” she says. “It’s not just for Foley, it’s for the whole county.”

For some entrepreneurs, it lets them make the only step they needed. One of the more unusual booths on this Saturday is Maria’s Gourmet Delights, where Maria Mendez and her husband, Jesus, are selling her empanadas and some amazingly good Cuban sandwiches.

Mendez worked as the director of Latin American sales and trade development for the Alabama State Port Authority before retiring in 2020. “Not knowing what I was going to do, I sat down and looked at my strengths and weaknesses, and everything revolved around cooking, Cuba and traveling,” she says.

She had the idea to start serving empanadas. She had a major ace in the hole: Restaurateur Bob Baumhauer is a friend, she says, and he was willing to help her as she worked through the permitting process and the learning curve of commercial food preparation. Business boomed.

“I needed to do something that would satisfy me,” she says. “And when you’ve put in a life that has been satisfying professionally, how do you fit that into your retirement? So I said, okay, I like to travel, I like to cook, I like to share my culture. So basically, I work 3 months and travel a whole month.

“What the market gives me is the financial freedom not to touch my retirement savings,” she says. “And at the same time, have fun and not grow old. I’m 73 right now, but when you get to be my age, everything starts hurting, so if you’re active and moving, nothing hurts.”

She sees other vendors like herself, she says: Retirees who want something that will keep them busy and bring in a little money, without being so big that it takes all their time and energy.

It adds up to a sense of community, Mendez says. “All the vendors are united and we all help one another,” she says.

“We live in an age where prayer is not cool, but we get together at 8:30 every morning,” she says. “And we pray, we pray for the people that come in, those that are in need, to be able to identify them, someone that might be hurting or in pain. So the people that make the market, they have an energy about them.”

“If you’re looking for a unique experience, a unique present that you’re buying someone, you’ll find everything from artwork to jewelry, handmade,” says Mendez. “And not only that, for food, if you’re looking for organic foods, quality foods that are pesticide-free, grown in Alabama, it is the best place to find all that. It’s a gourmet’s paradise, I guess, because you find the freshest produce, ingredients, spices for that particular time frame, whether it’s fall, spring, summer, winter.”

“Our main goal is to feed the community,” says Forland. “We want to have a friendly family atmosphere. We want everybody to feel connected to each other. And we just want to promote that because when you’re supporting local vendors, that money stays in your community, you’re keeping small business alive, it just is a good overall process for the whole community.

“I know everybody has to shop big box chains sometimes,” she says. “But when you can, it’s best to support the local community. Because that’s where your home is, right?”

The Coastal Alabama Farmers and Fishermens Market is at 781 Farmers Market Lane in Foley. It is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday, year-round. For information visit www.coastalalabamamarket.com and for updates see www.facebook.com/CoastalAlabamaMarket.

Ask Miss Alabama 2025 to dish about her favorite restaurants, and her eyes light up immediately.

“I‘m so excited to talk about this,” said Emma Terry, 22, a Leeds native. “This Miss Alabama loves to eat. She’s not eating lettuce all the time.”

Advocating for a healthy lifestyle is part of her mission as this year’s titleholder, and Terry, a ballet dancer, is quick to emphasize the importance of exercise and nutrition. She enjoys being active — dancing, walking, taking yoga and doing Pilates — but that doesn’t mean Terry deprives herself of her favorite treats.

“I had chocolate and candy during Miss Alabama week, because I needed some extra oomph to get me through. And I do not feel guilty about that for one second,” Terry said in a recent interview with AL.com.

When one of the backstage volunteers at the pageant — women affectionately known as “dressing room moms” — offered her some homemade peach cobbler, Terry didn’t hesitate to indulge.

“Life happens, and if you have a surprise peach cobbler put in front of you, you eat it and you don’t feel bad about it,“ Terry said. ”If you don’t hit your exercise goal or your step goal for the day, that is OK. You don’t have to have a perfect algorithm or balance to health. As long as there is a balance, that’s all that matters.”

Here are five eateries in the Birmingham area that get an enthusiastic thumbs up from the new Miss Alabama.

Where: 2504 Crestwood Blvd., Irondale.

Menu includes: Barbecue plates (pork, chicken, brisket, ribs, turkey, sausage), sandwiches, burgers, loaded potatoes, brisket nachos, Brunswick stew, chili, banana pudding, pies. Sides include potato salad, slaw, fries, turnip greens, corn on the cob and fried okra.

Miss Alabama says: “That is my favorite restaurant, probably in the entire state. It’s the Golden Rule in Irondale, the original Golden Rule. My grandfather went there when he worked for Buffalo Rock. There is the sweetest man; his name is Michael (Booker). He’s been there for years. He is in the back and he’s the one that smokes and prepares the meat. I see him every time. He knows my family.

“Michael prepares the meat, the pork, so perfectly, it melts in my mouth every time. And it has to be with their sauce. It is so, so good. I get the same thing every time. I get a plate, chopped, with beans and fries. Sometimes if I’m extra hungry, I get a side of mac and cheese, and it’s delicious. I’m a Golden Rule gal.”

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Where: 2901 2nd Ave. South, Suite 110, Birmingham.

Menu includes: Seared duck breast, grilled red snapper, wood-fired hanger steak, seared lamb rack, crab cake, pork tamale, okra basket, Hot and Hot tomato salad, peach cobbler, chocolate soufflé, plum tart.

Miss Alabama says: “I had the duck with risotto. Oh, it’s so good. And of course, they’re known for their tomato salad. I’m not a tomato girl, but I did enjoy that. I ate every bite.”

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Where: 2220 Highland Ave. South, Birmingham.

Menu includes: Lobster ravioli, maple glazed salmon, bone-in pork shank, shrimp and grits, scallops piccata, short rib pot pie, veal osso bucco, pimento cheese fritters, braised pork belly, fried green tomatoes, Greek spinach salad, bourbon pecan bread pudding, banana pudding, creme brulee.

Miss Alabama says: “I was part of an accounting honor society, and they took us there for our end-of-the-year celebration. It was the best pork chop I’ve ever eaten in my life. And the best sweet potatoes. They were pureed sweet potatoes, so good. Then I ate my weight in bread pudding.”

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Where: 2824 Fifth Ave. South, Birmingham.

Menu includes: Marinated crab claws, farm arugula salad, octopus a la plancha, crispy fish collar, cornmeal fried oysters, seared New England scallops, shrimp fried rice, blackened Mahi, smoked fish dip, crispy green beans, chocolate sponge cake, Key lime pie.

Miss Alabama says: “The scallops are delicious.”

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Where: Fast-food chain has many locations in Alabama, including the Birmingham area.

Menu includes: Burgers, chicken sandwiches, breakfast biscuits, salads, chicken fingers, slaw, fries, corn dogs, fried pies, milkshakes.

Miss Alabama says: “I do love a cheeseburger from Jack’s. I love a cheeseburger with bacon on it. It’s so good. That’s my go-to order. I think Jack’s is very unique to the South. And it’s such a good cheeseburger.

“If I really want to treat myself and I go to Jack’s, I’m going to get a big bacon cheeseburger with fries, a sweet tea, and a cookies and cream milkshake. I will not eat it all in one sitting. I will have a little bit of the milkshake, and probably put it in the freezer for later. Then after you take it out of the freezer and let it sit for a while, it’s so good. I also noticed they have a peanut butter and cookies milkshake and I haven’t tried it yet. I want to try that because I love peanut butter and I love cookies.”

RELATED: 12 things you might not know about Jack’s